James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Buahahaha :'( , i'm really intresting in art and i try to study a lot, i'm a little colorblind but my result is 95 ....... in what way i can continue if my eyes can't perceipt in right way the color ???

I continue in this way, but nature hasn't certainly helped in my street

Jeanette and I together got a 16, too. Don't know think my old laptop screen has ever been calibrated. Is that a good excuse for not doing better? I wish they told us how we fared on the bell curve. I assume someone is gathering data for an experiment.

I got a 4, but I'm on a mac, so I think I technically cheated hahahah.

I was a printing pressman for years and had to do a ton of color mixing by hand to exacting standards while trying to to use the smallest amount of ink possible. For anyone who wants to get better at mixing color, I would suggest the best way to gain better color acuity is to mix color! Instead of always mixing a color that looks "right enough" for what you're trying to do, don't stop until you determine the actual perfect color, and match that as precisely as you can. I once spent almost 10 hours trying to get a color right (I'll never forget that %$#*$ color! It was a slightly warm grey at about a value of 8 on the munsell scale) It's a lot easier to hold yourself to a standard like this if there's an uptight boss looking over your shoulder. hahahah. I definitely don't go to these extremes when I'm painting at home but the time I spent doing it on the job has definitely helped me figure out how to get to the color I want.

I got a 4 as well, with mistakes located in the blue area of the spectrum. By the end of the test I noticed that slightly squinting the eyes and avoiding staring improves (just like in painting)the ability to distinguish between the subtlest hue variations.

I did the test twice - I scored 15 on my large main monitor that is not currently colour calibrated and then 0 (perfect score) on my cintiq screen that HAS been colour calibrated. So this test and the data it collects is a little bit useless since there's no accounting for monitor differences... Still fun, though! And I'm a little relieved that on a properly calibrated screen, my accuracy is quite good! But to those getting worried about their colour perception abilities...don't sweat it, really. Probably just the screen you are using!

I tried this a couple times and the areas where I had errors seemed to magically align with the temperature of the room light (eg. under florescent greens were off etc.) So I suspect that at least for non- colour blind individuals, a poor score on this has more to do with the monitor and the room than one's skill at discriminating between hues.

I used to work at a paint factory. I remember the color mixers were not allowed to drink alcohol during the week because it would affect their color perception. Oh yeah, and I scored a zero the first time! yeah, and I though I would flunk!

Thank you for posting this, very interesting. I too was worried about my monitor screwing up my results, I know it hasn't been calibrated but it is of a good standard. To my relief I did get 0, helped brighten up my day after I received a statement for my student loan!

My score was 182, due to being somewhat colorblind. (Which I'm told is rare for a female; my dad's completely colorblind and my mom's apparently a carrier of the gene.) Coincidentally when I was out painting yesterday it was pointed out to me by some onlookers that Viridian isn't the calm, gray-green that I tend to think it is. Anyone know of a good green to use when toning or underdrawing for, say, a subject with a lot of reds? I'm guessing Terre Verte (PG23+PG18+PB28) or Chromium Oxide (PG17) might work, or else cut the Viridian with some Transparent Red Oxide?

7! on a best buy store brand LCD (60hrz) 40" non-calibrated TV-as-Monitor! I suppose i'll actually give Dynex, (at your local best buy) a plug for this, i was seriously under the impression this was a worse set than that.

Which isn't to say that the colors it displays are true, but that they're hue gradient depiction is pretty good.

It would be nice if there were more interpretation of the scores. I got a 58, but it's hard to tell if that's good are bad when all you're told are the best and worst scores for your age group. My impression is that my monitor isn't all that good, though, in any case.

I found that by moving the tiles into big groups and then testing individual tiles to the left and right one position, it was easy to tell when a tile 'fit' or not. They seemed too 'dark' when too far to the right from their group and too 'light' when too far to the left from their group. Not sure if that makes sense.

I got a seven. All my problems were in the blue green range. perhaps the monitor was a problem, or maybe I'm not good with those hues. I was also surprised that according to the site women have much better color perception than men in general.

I did the exact same thing, PatternGhost. Get them in roughly correct order, then start grabbing difficult tiles and wiggling them back and forth to make the hue change pop more clearly. Got a zero this way.

I got a score of 12, did not calibrate the monitor.I was surprised my 'problems' were with the blue greens, which I thought were easier.

I did an overall sort first then fine tuned like PatternGhost and Rod.

I should say I gave myself a limited time of about 2 minutes per line just to see how good my quick decisions are. I'm usually better without second guessing.

@Laura... see this post, it may help. It is a little backwards to your question but good advice.James gurney linked it from here on Gurney Journey, but I could not find it.http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/search?q=smuggling+red

I had a score of 20-something previously, but now after taking it again i had a 0!I remember having quite a lot of problems with the third green-purple section. But it might be cause i have a crappy monitor then.

Still, it's good to know my eye-brain coordination and monitor are both working fine.

@Laura: I had (or still have) the same problem with too bright or unnatural greens.I used to mix my greens with Emerald Green as a base, mixed with reds and yellows, but appartently it's too difficult to mix Emerald Green to a natural warm green.So I started using Sap Green (Daler-Rowney Cryla 375).It's a mixture of phthalo green pg7 with arylamide yellow py73 and iron oxide red pr101.

I've done it once with little pieces of paper about 20 years ago when they did all sorts of test at grammar school (part of some study). All they said back then that I had exceptionally good colour vision and a zero score now (with an old Dell monitor) reassured me that they were right :)

i got a perfect score of 0 on a macbook pro. I really don't see how the monitor affects people's scores because the brightness or darkness of the monitor should relatively affect each hue at the same level, making difference between each hue unchanged.

When working for an ad agency in Chicago, the manager of the photo retouching department had this in a peg form, where you put the pegs in order. I got 100% correct. He asked if I wanted to be a photo retoucher? I turned him down because I wanted to be an art director.

I found this online a few months ago and took it again. Same result. Maybe I should have been that retoucher? But I enjoy being an artist better.

I got a 0 (perfect) and did it on a mac laptop, which generally have pretty good calibration. I also am an illustrator, and have spent many years mixing paints and spent a lot of time painting all of those swatches and arranging them in fade order that were pretty much like this test back when I was in Art School.

I got a 0 on this. (Screenshot to prove it!) I'd like to point out, however, that I took the test about 6 months to a year ago on the same uncalibrated screen and got in the mid-60's, blue greens being my worst area.

I picked up Color and Light after that. I used to work in charcoal primarily, now I work in oil. It's all about studying and practicing.